1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to touchscreen electronic devices, and more particularly, to controlling operations of a touchscreen terminal equipped with a grip sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some recent designs of handheld touchscreen terminals such as smart phones and tablet PCs have been equipped with a grip sensor which is used to determine the grip status of the terminal. The grip sensor is typically a pressure sensor disposed on the lateral side portions of the terminal. When it is determined via a grip status signal that the user is gripping the terminal, certain functions of the terminal may be automatically modified. For instance, the user's grip may be known to alter antenna performance in a predetermined manner. Hence an antenna matching circuit or antenna element switching circuit may be automatically varied when the grip signal is detected, to optimize antenna performance. In another example, when a user's grip is detected, it is generally more likely that the user is actively using the terminal. A sleep mode function in which the display is turned off after no touch is detected for a preset time, may thus be modified or suspended when the grip signal is detected.
When a user grips a touchscreen terminal with a grip sensor, the user's finger or hand may make an unintentional touch on the terminal's touchscreen. To solve this problem, terminals have been provided with a bezel, i.e., a frame area surrounding the touchscreen. With the bezel, the terminal may protect the touchscreen against the unintentional touch when gripped by the user, because the user's finger does not reach over the bezel.
However, by including the bezel, the size of the terminal becomes unnecessarily large while an area of the touchscreen becomes relatively small.